The Ghost at Aunt Jemima's House
by scoobydooandrubytoo
Summary: The gang is visiting Shaggy's Aunt, Jemima, when they discover a werewolf, a ghost that may be in the very house they're staying in, a secret trapdoor, and a submarine!
1. Chapter 1

*Based on the old Scooby Doo show

The bright mystery machine stood out against the dark night. The gang was driving through the middle of nowhere. Daphne was getting apprehensive, and she finally said, "Freddie, I don't like this. We should go a different way. When we passed that fork in the road a while back, why didn't we take the road into town? Oh, can't we please turn back now?"

At this point Velma jumped into the conversation, "Daphne, you know that Shaggy's Aunt, Jemima, has been waiting since last week for us to visit. She never gets any visitors living out here in the boondocks. But we got snowed in, and couldn't come. We just couldn't cancel on the poor dear again."

At this point, Scooby and Shaggy look up from the back of the van, where they had been making sandwiches that were as long as Shaggy's lanky arms.

"Like, are we lost? Is there any way to ask directions from someone?" Shaggy questions, because he was busy talking to Scooby.

"Nonsense, We don't need to ask directions from anyone! I'm telling you guys, this is the way there!" Fred would not have this. He knew where he was going!

"Hey, look there's someone up ahead; let's ask for directions from them-"

"-Or it! Jinkies," Daphne cried.

Now that they were closer, the thing that was standing on the side of the road looked more like a werewolf than a human. There was hair on it everywhere, on its head, coming out of its ears, its nose, and there were lots on its face, as well. It was hunching over, so much in fact that it almost looked like it was on its all fours.

"Zoinks! This place is cursed, let's get out of here!" Shaggy yelped, and Fred swerved the car around in the lane. Mid-swerve, the taillights swept over the spot where the wolf-man had been. He was gone!

"Well, if the strange-looking man is gone, then there's no harm in continuing on, is there?" Fred questioned.

"I don't like it..." Daphne said.

"I think its fine," Velma intoned.

After much debate, the group decided to continue onwards.

The headlights of the mystery machine cut through the fog, as the car wound through the bayou that was near Shaggy's Aunt Jemima's house.

Freddie turned off the car, and everybody got out. Velma went up to the front door and knocked. Shaggy would have done so, but he and Scooby were busy getting the supplies for their sandwiches out of the van. Minutes after Velma rapped on the door, it slowly creaked open. A thin thoughtful face of about 50 years stuck her head out the door- it was Aunt Jemima. As soon as she saw that it was the gang, a look of relief spread over her face.

"Why Aunt Jemima, what's the matter? You look as white as a sheet and as pale as a ghost!" Shaggy exclaimed.

Aunt Jemima ushered in everyone and quickly shut the door; she turned the lock and slid the huge bolt into place.

After saying a heartfelt hello, and passing tea and biscuits to everyone, she sat them down and started to explain what had frightened her.

"One night I was walking along the path by the bayou," she slung out in her southern drawl, "when I heard an awful sound!"

"What was it?" Velma asked sitting forward in concern.

"Well now I'm not sure, but it almost sounded like a wolf howling!" Cried Aunt Jemima.

"A wolf!" The whole gang shouted in unison.

"Why, we just saw something that looked like a werewolf, driving here," Fred exclaims.

"Well," says Freddie, "I don't believe in werewolves. Someone has to be dressing up! But why would they? Are they trying to scare off people for some reason?"

Aunt Jemima looks up thoughtfully, "there is the Kotinloch ghost that supposedly hung around this house before I lived in it. If you ask it the right question to her on a full moon, she will make you immortal forever. No one knows the question, though. Also, a full moon has come and gone since I heard the howl.

"It looks like we have a mystery on our hands," Velma declares.


	2. The Man Who lives in the shack

~Chapter two: The Man Who Lives in the Shack~

"Does anyone live near you?" Velma asked, while drinking her tea.

"No, just Bo Hankson, who lives in the shack on the other side of the bayou. He doesn't come out much, only to canoe around the bayou looking for alligators, though everyone knows that those don't live around here. We've told him many times, but he still keeps on paddling up and down the bayou's swampy waters day in and day out. That's all he does! He even asked me – much to the dismay of him for having to come away from his shack- if I would buy his groceries for him, which I gladly complied. You know, I feel bad for the old guy sometimes, out there in his hermit shack..."

"So he makes you buy his groceries for him. Does he give you money to do so?" Fred wondered aloud.

"No, see when I asked him about the arrangements; he just said that he did not know what the word 'money' means. He seems awfully sheltered, so I didn't doubt him. Though I did see a television set flickering through one of the frosted windows of his shack. Don't they ever mention what 'money' is on television? Maybe not, he could just be watching shows about alligators." At this she chuckled.

"Money nothing! That man is swindling you Aunt Jemima, and if he is doing that, he could be trying to swindle you out of the Kotinloch immortality secret, if he even believes in that hooey. And how would he even find out the right question? Maybe we should pay a little unwanted visit to this Mr. Bo Hankson," Fred said indignantly.

The whole group agreed, and they planned to paddle to the other side of the bayou in the morning. Aunt Jemima showed them all to their separate rooms, because the Kotinloch house was so big, there was no need to share rooms like they normally would, with girls in one room and guys in the other.

...

Daphne woke with a start, because she had heard a strange tapping sound in the middle of the night. She went to her window, and looked out. In a flash of lightning, she made out the frame of a werewolf throwing pebbles at her window. She yelped with fright, jumped back from the window thinking it had seen her, and muttered a "jinkies" under her breath.

She heard footsteps in the hallway, and the door of hers creaked open. She gasped, but when she saw it was just Fred, she grasped her chest in relief.

When he saw that she was alarmed, Fred rushed forward and took Daphne in his arms, rubbing her back.

"You'll never believe what I just saw. It was the werewolf that we passed driving here, that disappeared! He -or it- was throwing pebbles at my window, and when I went to the window I think he saw me due to a flash of lightning. Oh Freddie, I'm scared!" Daphne cried into Freddie's shoulder.

"It's okay, Why don't we get our coats and investigate outside," he murmered in a soothing tone.

After grabbing their jackets, Fred and Daphne tiptoed down the two flights of stairs that led to the ground floor. The door slowly creaked open to reveal pouring rain. Normally, if the gang were there, Daphne would have taken this as an opportunity to say "My HAIR!" in a whiny voice, but she felt no need to say this in front of Fred. She used a superficial exterior to hide to gentle, true Daphne that was inside. She knew Fred too well to hide herself from him. They had been dating for a long time, in secret, though why Freddie always felt the need to make them obvious by saying, "Velma, you go with Shag and Scooby, and Daphne will come with me," Daphne never knew. She supposed it was because those shy, stolen moments were some of the very few that she and Fred got. Those and the ones at the malt shop, where the two could simultaneously have the "bathroom" excuse, and sneak out to the back, with the view that overlooked the city. They had both said they loved each other, a long time ago, when they had only been dating for ten months.

Daphne was startled back to reality, when a bolt of thunder crashed outside. They stepped out into the rain. Fred and Daphne looked in the backyard, in the forest, and by the bayou. They saw nothing. It was pitch black outside, and it was raining harder than ever.

"We might as well look more deeply in the woods." Freddie said.

Now both Fred and Daphne were soaked. They spent twenty minutes looking around the woods, when Daphne found something in the dirt.

"Look," she exclaimed, "Here are some footprints!"

They both examined them closely and took some photographs. Their faces were so close to each other taking the photographs, that they couldn't help but turn towards one-another. Fred stashed his camera in his pocket, and Daphne's fell out of her hand, as he pressed her up against a tree. Fred kissed Daphne slowly, and pressed harder against her, so that she felt her spine against the tree. Their breath showed in puffs, in the cold, rainy, air. Daphne ran her hands through Fred's white- blonde hair, and murmured his name. He sighed with pleasure, and bent his head sideways to kiss her neck. Fred ran his hand up under her shirt, letting cold air in and giving her Goosebumps all over. He squeezed her breasts, and since Daphne was extremely ticklish, she laughed out loud, her bubbly giggle bouncing and echoing though the rainy woods. They continued on kissing, though the rain had not relented.

Finally, Daphne said, "Freddie, do you want to go back inside? We could go to my room, besides what if someone woke up and is wondering where we are? We have the photographs of the footprints."

Fred nodded with a secret smile that Daphne couldn't interpret, and slinging his arm around her, the couple made their way back to Aunt Jemima's house.

...

Once inside Daphne's room, the couple laid their clothes across her radiator, and in their skivvies, they jumped under Daphne's comforter. The bed was cold, but the heat of both of their bodies pressed up against each other quickly warmed it up. Daphne burrowed into Fred, his arms around her.

Fifteen minutes later, Fred unexpectedly threw the blankets back with a hushed laugh, and draping a sheet over the barely clothed Daphne; he picked her up fireman style, and carried her out of her room. He went into the freezing hallway, and into his room, where a surprising scene met Daphne's eyes. The bed was strewn with rose petals, and millions of candles were set around the room.

Daphne gasped in surprise, and looked at Freddie lovingly.

"Tonight?" She asked, with humour in her eyes. Both Fred and Daphne were virgins. "In Shaggy's aunts house? And when did you do this?"

Fred nodded, and he said "as soon as Aunt Jemima showed us to our rooms." and pulled her towards the bed. They started kissing , and both lay back on the bed, Fred's weight pressing down on Daphne. She moaned, and pulled off his boxers with the mystery machine on them (custom made). He undid her bra clip, and pulled it off. Next he got her underwear, and he kissed her mouth, then he kissed her neck slowly, and he went on like this all the way to her bellybutton.

...

After they were done, Fred pulled Daphne in towards him, kissing her neck. They lay there for a long time, and Daphne was pretending to be asleep, when Fred leaned forward and kissed her neck. She smiled to herself, and drifted off to sleep.


	3. Alligators?

~Chapter 3: Alligators?~

The next morning, with rain still pounding away, the gang was surrounding Aunt Jemima's kitchen table. Shaggy and Scooby were eating eggs with chocolate syrup and hot sauce, and the rest of the gang was eating pancakes.

Aunt Jemima was nowhere to be found, so the group had gone ahead and made the breakfast themselves.

"Who's up for taking a trip to meet Bo Hanson?" Freddie asked the others.

"Reah! Reah," Scooby agreed, everyone knew how he had grown up by a bayou when he was a young pup. He loved being by the swampy waters, and had a knack for fishing.

"Like, groovy!" Shaggy agreed. He often agreed with Scooby, as Scooby often agreed with Shaggy. They were like two peas in a pod, and when Scooby made up his mind not to do something, Shaggy would reciprocate with an "Uh, uh. Like no way!" The only way to get them out of these rebellious phases (which happened quite often, in fact) was to toss one of them a Scooby Snack or two, which the other usually intercepted.

Freddie ordered, "Okay, gang. Let's finish up and get out of here. Velma, do you want to check the cellar for life jackets? We should use those for safety, because you never know what could happen out here in the bayou!"

"Sure Freddie!"

After everyone had gone to their rooms to get their jackets and were gathered back in the kitchen, Velma shouted from down the hall, "It's locked Freddie; I guess it's a no-go for the lifejackets. We'll just have to fend for ourselves."

She came into the kitchen, and started looking in every drawer for a key. After several minutes of silence, except for the pounding of rain that could be heard on the metal roof, Velma had not found the key. Suddenly, Velma exclaimed, "Hey! What's this?"

She held up what appeared to be a pamphlet of some sort. "It says Coffee Bean South America, what could that mean?"

"Huh. What would your aunt have anything to do with coffee beans Shag? Has she ever mentioned anything before?"

"Like, not that I can remember," Shaggy said.

"Huh, it's probably just something she got in the mail." Fred then took the opportunity to peer out of the window through the rain that was coming down in sheets. "But there's no mail box. Something fishy is going on here, and I'd like to find out what it is. There Aunt Jemima comes now," he said in a rushed voice.

Velma quickly hid the pamphlet under her orange turtleneck.

The front door opened with a creak, and Aunt Jemima stepped inside with a smile. "Hello kids! Why up so early? I was just doing some shopping for Mr. Hankson." She seemed on-edge, and almost as if she had been caught in the act of doing something wrong.

"We're going to go—" Shaggy started.

"—canoeing for fun, so we thought we should get an early start," Fred finished for Shaggy. Velma took this as an opportunity to run upstairs to fetch her raincoat, and when she got back, Freddie motioned to everyone to come outside, while giving Aunt Jemima one last smile.

When the group got outside, the rain had slowed to a drizzle, or at least enough that the canoeing wouldn't be too miserable. Daphne took this as an opportunity to say, "My HAIRRR," and shaggy walked over to Freddie with an angry look on his face. "Why don't you want Aunt Jemima knowing we're going to visit Bo Hankson? Like, do you think my Aunt is involved in some way?" Shaggy asked, confused.

"No," Freddie replied, "but if we're ever going to solve this mystery, we can't give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Why would your aunt have a pamphlet on coffee beans in South America? She doesn't even have a mailbox. She could be tied into something wit Bo Hankson, and it may be a gut instinct, but I have a feeling it has something to do with this mystery."

Shaggy huffed and walked away.

When they got to the banks of the bayou, Freddie, as per usual, said, "Velma, you go with Shag and Scooby, and Daphne will come with me."

They all got in; Fred started paddling one boat and Shaggy the other.

Halfway to the old shack, Fred yelled to Shaggy that he had forgotten something in his room, and he needed to go back.

"Groovy," said Shaggy, obviously still annoyed.

There was a weeping willow up ahead, that Freddie paddled for. He had indeed not forgotten anything in his room, but simply wanted to spend a few minutes alone with Daphne. As they got to the weeping willow, Freddie stopped paddling to push aside the branches of the weeping willow, and continued to paddle inside the dome of the weeping willow branches. The tree branches hung all the way to just above the water, and some raindrops were sneaking in through the gorgeous canopy of light green that filtered the greyish light of the sky. The leaves looked like they were touched with dew.

Fred breaks the dreamy silence with, "I had a fun time last night."

"Me too," Daphne said with a smile. She leaned in too kiss him, and after a brief kiss, moved over to rest her head on his shoulder. She squeezed him tight, and looked up at the canopy of the weeping willow. She tilted her head back, and caught raindrops on her tongue, extremely happy. Daphne leaned back and stared over the side of the canoe, dragging her hand in the water and smiling. She thought she saw something stirring the muddiness of the water around, and gestured to Fred to look, too. They suddenly saw the tip of an alligators tale flick up out of the water, and at the same time, both of them leaning over the edge of the canoe caused it to tip them over, into the water with the alligator!


	4. Chapter 4

~Chapter 4: Questionable Circumstances~

The alligator snapped at Daphne, but Fred pushed its head back under the water just in time; the alligator barely missed Daphne's face by inches. Just then a tail flicked up out of the murky water that did not belong to the one that Daphne and Fred had first encountered. Could there possibly be more?

Fred gave a war cry of sorts and whipped off his shirt in one fast, determined motion. He jumped on the alligator promptly forcing it –and Fred—deep under water.

Daphne was stunned. Could this really be happening? It was something practically out of a TV show, like one of those mystery shows where you always know who the villain was from the very beginning, and some dog always found the crucial clue to solve it.

At this point Fred came back to the surface, still struggling against the Alligator and looking slightly crazy. Well...not slightly...just crazy. His shoulder muscles were straining so much so, that the two little tendons on his shoulders stood out which drove Daphne crazy.

She was so deeply transfixed with Fred's attractive-and muscular-shoulders that she just stared at him for a long moment, treading water and not having a care in the world. She jolted out of her trance, turned around, and swam over to the weeping willow tree. She got her footing under water on the tree trunk, and climbed awkwardly up the tree. Grabbing a branch, she tugged until it snapped off, showering a mass of raindrops over her. This is yet another instance where-were the gang with her-the exclamation "My hair!" Would have fallen from her lips, but they did not. She quickly jumped back into the water and swam over to Fred, who was still struggling with the alligator under water.

She hit the alligator over the head as hard as she could, also hitting Fred's flailing right arm in the process.

"Arghhhh!" Fred exclaimed in surprise and pain.

At the same time, the alligator swam away for the time being, giving just enough time for Daphne and Fred to turn over their canoe, retrieve their paddles, and get out of there as fast as they could.

Paddling hard, Fred managed to maneuver the canoe out from under the canopy of the weeping willow and onto open water before they had another interaction with the alligators.

After paddling for 10 minutes, the two lovers came in sight of the rest of the gang sitting on the porch of a truly dilapidated shack the size of only two mystery machines put together.

"Why are you guys waiting out here?" Fred asked.

Shaggy, still clearly insulted from Fred's doubt in his aunt's honesty, replies with a short clipped "he's not here yet."

"Why wouldn't he be? Isn't he a hermit? I thought he couldn't go out, that's why he has Aunt Jemima do his grocery shopping for him," Daphne wondered aloud.

Just then a man could be seen canoeing towards the hut.

Surprisingly, he had a bag of groceries in his canoe. As he came up to the confused gang sitting on his front porch, Fred broke the silence. "Hi, we're friends of Aunt Jemima. How come you have a bag of groceries, when Jemima, this one's aunt" –he pointed to Shaggy- "says she buys them for you?"

After several seconds filled with head scratching, Bo finally says "Jemima? I only see her once a year –maybe at that. Why would she buy my groceries for me? Don't I look like an able-bodied man?" He started getting red in the cheeks and flustered out of embarrassment.

Fred cut in, smoothing over the situation with "Of course you do! That's why we came to ask you about it...the grocery buying that is." In reality, the gang had been going to see if Bo Hankson seemed to be up to something, but now the tables had turned. Could this really be Aunt Jemima behind all of this?

"Well, now we ought to be going," Velma said.

...

A few minutes later, everyone was back in their canoes. The gang paddled back to Aunt Jemima's, and since they knew they were being deceived, they didn't know what to say to her; she was currently taking up the rocking chair in the living room. The group retired to their rooms within five minutes. Later that evening, Velma thought that Shaggy might be taking this new discovery about Aunt Jemima hard. She wanted to check up on him to see how he was feeling. She crept across the hall, only to run into Jemima herself coming up the stairs.

Velma started in surprise, but quickly regained her composure.

Aunt Jemima didn't seem to notice. "How was the canoeing?"

"G-good..."

"...Okay, well, I just came up to see why everyone was upstairs," Jemima said.

"Oh, you know. That canoeing really wore us out."

"Huh... your arms are pretty tired huh?"

"Uh huh..."

"Well...huh," Jemima started walking away, and then quickly turned around. "Hey you know how I said that you guys should pay a visit to Bo Hankson? I really don't think that's a good idea. It's supposed to rain torrents this weekend, and your arms will be tired, and I really don't think that visiting him will help anything. That is to say...you can if you want...I just don't think it would be a good idea, that's all."

She continued on babbling like this, until Velma couldn't stand it any longer, "Okay," Velma said. "We won't visit him. I don't think it's a good idea either." She then turned abruptly and walked down the hall to Shaggy's room.

...

"Hey," Velma said quietly.

Shaggy was sitting by the window; a punctured "Hey" came out of the darkness.

She went and sat down next to him.

"I always came here as a kid you know. She would make us cookies and take us canoeing in the bayou. You know, Mr. Hankson didn't even live here then. It was just Aunt Jemima and me, my mom and dad would go fishing in the bayou, and we –just the two of us—would sit on that porch of hers rocking side by side. She would tell me stories of the 50s and of her many days in Baltimore. That's where she lived you know—Baltimore.

"I never really told anybody this but...I really did look up to her. It's ironic now, with us forming the gang, that one of the mysteries that we're solving involves her. She might not even be involved," at this point Shaggy started talking faster and more fervently. "In fact...I don't think she is! So what she lied to us about buying groceries! So what that there's some mysterious pamphlet about South African coffee beans! I think she is inn—"

"Shhh, it's okay. You're right. We don't know anything yet. From now on, in my book, Aunt Jemima is innocent until proven guilty." Velma then leaned over to rest her head on Shaggy's arm, to comfort him.

They sat in silence for several minutes, when Shaggy chuckled. Velma turned her head to him to find out what was funny, when her nose almost brushed his, and she took a sharp intake of breath to keep their shoulders from bumping together. She could see no way of avoiding an awkward brush other than to stand up suddenly, and blurt out "I've been here long enough, I should go."

As she was walking out the door, she couldn't help but think, "Would it really be that awkward?" A little voice in her head yelled back "Yes!" But in her bones she heard a quiet "No."

...


End file.
